Labor Day sale pricing hints at slow sell-through for RIM’s top PlayBook tablet

Retail giant Best Buy is currently offering Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet at a discount for Labor Day. For a limited time, RIM’s tablet can be had for as little as $449.99 for the 16GB model, a $50 discount. The 32GB and 64GB PlayBook models are both priced at $549.99, affording a $50 discount on the former and a $150 discount on the latter. The steeper discount on RIM’s high-end PlayBook may indicate that Best Buy is having trouble offloading the pricey tablet, which normally retails for $700. RIM announced on its earnings call in June that it had shipped 500,000 PlayBook tablets during the slate’s first partial quarter of availability. Since then, reports have been mixed; while many analysts have said RIM’s tablet is not selling well to end users, a major Australian retailer has gone on record with claims of “fantastic” PlayBook sales. Best Buy confirmed to BGR via email that its sale on BlackBerry PlayBook tablets will run through Labor Day, September 5th.